Sunday, July 13, 2008

Traffic Stop

It seems that even though the roads I ride are almost empty of cars these days, more of the ones that are out there leave less space when they pass me. Today was no exception, I probably had five cars pass within six inches. One of them, a brown van, passed and, since the windows were down, I mentioned to the passenger that they were a little close. No response, but the next vehicle to go by, less than a car length behind the van, was a Liberty police cruiser. About a quarter mile further I saw the blue lights come on and the van pull over. Since I didn't see the van driver do anything other than get too close to me, I can only hope that was why he was stopped. So many more people are turning to bikes to get around town now because no one can afford gas, maybe there will be a little more effort to keep us all safe.

I know bicycle sales are up, so are motorcycles. I had to get the Yamaha inspected Saturday, and while I was at the (Honda) dealer I asked about their sales. It seems they're great, except they've sold out of everything new and won't be getting any more until October.

Only got in a short ride today - 33 miles @17 mph. I now have 2001 miles on the no longer new bike. No complaints.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Happy Fourth

OK - that was yesterday, but...
Being Independence Day and not wanting to spend any money on gas, we elected to stay home, do a traditional southern barbecue, and, basically do nothing. In the spirit of the day, I purchased some Samuel Adams Boston Lager - as the guy who founded the brewery says on Modern Marvels on the History Channel, the founding fathers weren't drinking tea in the pubs in Boston when they were plotting against the king. Anyway, it's great beer. Tastes nothing like Miller or Bud. Good thing, for the price. We had big thunderstorms blow through, so nature provided the fireworks.

UPS finally found my package from Pearl Izumi. Turns out they delivered it to the house next door, and it was still on the front porch when they went looking for it - a full week after I called to tell them I didn't have it. I'm glad I got the stuff, it is nice, (I've always liked argyle - glad it's made a comeback) but come on, I had to wait a week to find out it was sitting 100 feet away? Not much sense of urgency or worries about customer satisfaction from UPS.

I watched the first stage of the TDF this morning - pretty good stage, and I see we can get live streaming video from Versus before they go on the air - cool.

Got in 54 and a half miles today - 17.6 mph, so the week was 165 miles. With the 2740.99 miles I've logged so far this year it seems like that goal of 4000 may have been too low.